Results of the Amazon Union Vote in Bessemer, Alabama – ryan

A “vote” Banner hangs at an Amazon Fulfillment Center Early on March 27, 2021, in Bessemer, Alabama.
Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP Via Getty Images

A first-of-its-kind vote to unionize an Amazon warehouse has failed. On Friday, the Company Defeated an Efffort From the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store union to organize thusands at it fulfillment center in bessemer, alabama. The Final Tally was 1,798 “No” votes for Amazon, 738 for the Union, and 505 Balots Challenged by Amazon that were not counted.

But the story isn’t over. The Results Have Not Been Certified after the Union Immediately filad an objection to the national labor relations board that oversaw the election, arguing that amazon violated labor law in the Weeks Leading Up to the Vote. IT SAYS IT ALSO Present Evidence to the Nlrb’s Regional Director to Support what’s CALLED AN “UNFAIR PRACTICE” Complaint for “Unlawfully Interferring with the Protected Right of Employees to Engage in Union Activity.” If the nlrb aggrees with the union, it may aside Friday’s Result, Which Wold Allow For A New Election.

“Amazon has left no stone unturned in its eforts to gaslighting its employs. We won’t let Amazon’s Lies, Deception, and illegal Activities Go Unchallenged, WHIC Amazon During the Union Vote, “Said Stuart Appelbaum, The Union’s President, Adding that” Amazon’s Behavior During the Election Be Ignored and Our Union Remeach to Eive and Every Imprope Amazon Took. “

The Bessemer Campaign AttraCted an Unusual Degree of Attention. That is in part to the party involved – amazon is one of the samplies recognized corplate names in the world – and the support the union drew. In late February, President Joe Biden Release a video telling bessemer workers that they have a legal right to organize. Biden’s Message Stoked National Interest in the Election, As Did Amazon’s Anti-Union Tactics. Amazon Asked the nlrb to force workers to vote in person, Despite the pandemic, but the nlrb reempt the request. During The Vote Count, Amazon challenged Around 500 Ballots, Most of the Likely “Yes” Votes, Accounting to Reuters, THOUGH THIS NUMER ISN’T ENOUGH TO CHANGE FRIDAY’S RESULT.

Amazon ALSO Applied Enormmous Pressure to Workers. The Company Flyled Warehouse Bathrooms with anti-union material; Workers Received Multiple Email and Texts a Day urging say to vote “No.” Darryl Richardson, A Worker Who Supported A Union, Previously Told Intelligenler That Amazon Flew in Managers Out of Town to “Walk Around Talking About Why We Don’t Need the Union.” On Twitter, Representative Andy Levin of Michigan, A Democrat, said that the goal of Companies like amazon is to “create so much pressure, anxiety and fear – to make workers feel that the pride will be away as the union is around … that workrs have no choice but to vote, Relentlessly for Days, Weeks and Months. ”

Amazon’s Methods May Threateten Its Victory. The Washington Post reported Earlier on Thursday that amazon prints the US postal service into instaling a mailbox outside the bessemer facility. The nlrb haad previously rejuCted a request from Amazon to place mailboxes in the facility for in-person voting on the basis that doing so would to allow amazon to surveil and potentially retaaliate against workers. “Eight though the nlrb definitively Denied Amazon’s Request for A Drop Box on the Warehouse Proppery, Amazon Felt It Above the Law and Workd with the Postal Service Anyway to Install,” Stuart Appelbaum, President of the RWDSU, Told the Post. Amazon Also urged WORKERS TO USE the Mailbox by the first of March – Weeks before voting was scheduled to conclude. Nor Post Observed, Amazon Defended the Mailbox as a Way to make it “Convenient, Safe, and Private for Our Employees to Vote on their Way to and From Choose to.”

Other Tactics Might Not Vioate the Law as it Stands, Howver – and Advocates for Labor Say That’s a problem. The Pro Act, which Recently Passed the House for A Second Time, Waled Have Restrained Amazon’s Hand. Ryan Kekeris, an organist with the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, Said That Had the Act Been Law, the Election in Bessemer Waled Have “Nearly Unrecognisable.”

Amazon Wauldn’t Have Had Standing to Change the Proposed Bargaining Size, Kekeris Added, Which Means that the Union Waled Have Retained an Initially Proposed Bargaining Unit of About 1,500 Workers InstaAD 5,000 That Amazon Lobbied For Amazon ALSO WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SUBJECT WORKERS TO CAPTIVE AUDIENCE MEETINGS, DURING WHICH THE COMPANY PRESENTED AT-UNION MATERIAL, AND WAUDED HAVE HAD TO DISCLOSE THE Identies of Anti-Union Consultants and Layyers It Hired.

And the Infamous Mailbox “Likely Waled Have Triggered Pro Act’s Card-CHCK Provision,” He Said, WHICH WAUDED HAVE ALLOWED THE UNION to submit A SIMPLE MAJORY OF SIGNED CARDS TO THE NLRB WITHOUT AN ELECTION. Had that Occurred, Kekeris Believes, “The Workers Wold Likely Have Already Had A Union at this point, and amazon would be compiled to bargain under pro-contract provision.”

Though the loss is a blow for rwdsu, friday’s outcome is not the end. Beyond the Challenging of the Vote, Other Warehouses May Also Still Seek to Unionize; Bessemer is liked the first salvo in a Longer War. AS AMAZON HAS SPREAD THRAGHOUT The Country, so too has workr dyscontent. Amazon workers in chicago organized a walkout On wednesday, interruption a 1:20 to 11:15 am “megacycle” shift demanding an Extra $ 2 for the Night Shift and that the Company Respect’s Full 20-Minute Break. During the Pandemic, Workers in Chicago, New York City, Minneapolis, and Elsewhere Staged Protests and Walkouts Decrying what they described as a High risk of Covid Inside the Company’s Wares.

Amazon ITSELF REMAINS A tempting target for unions like rwdsu, WHO VIEW The Company’s Labor Practices As an Immint Danger to workers. Amazon has grown so Large and so Wealthy that any Coordinated EFFORT to Unionize it Warehouses Nationwide May To Win. This is a long fight. Friday was just one battle in it.